Failed Inspection 12-6 action

Just failed my inspection due to some slight play in the front driver's side wheel when rocking at 12-6. Last year, I replaced lower control arms, shocks, and stabilizers.

Should the first repair be UCA ball joints? Before getting into anything else?

Thanks.

 

Miles on vehicle? Any noises from that area? Last alignment was how long ago?

 

162k. There's some wobble from that wheel when driving. I first thought it was a bearing issue, but the 12-6 play seems more ball joint, right? Alignment was a year ago when I did all the rest of the suspension work.

 

Can you take it back to the alignment guys and tell them you failed ? That’s something they should have caught.

 

Get you a helper, jack up the front end, one of you move the wheel and the other can look to see what's loose.

 

I feel a year is a pretty long time for things to fail.

 

What does this mean?

 

That in a year things are bound to fail that aren't on the hands of alignment tech. It wasn't an issue until relatively recently. The alignment was a good year ago, at least.

 

^^^ Listen to these guys, they know whats up. Helps to have a big prybar to gently persuade things and see what moves.

If there is play in the 12-6 direction but not the 9-3 direction and no noise from the hub bearing then yeah might be a ball joint. Easy to check and confirm.

 

Was it a shop that does automotive repairs that did the inspection?
If so, you should have asked them for a quote on fixing it.
Then you’ll know.

It’s kind of “jerk” thing to do.
But they failed you. So at least you’ll know why it failed.

 

It's not the time to figure out who to blame, it's time to figure out what's loose. Get under there and look

 

Not really.. They failed him, they should know why. Every shop Ive ever gotten an inspection at would at least tell me over the phone what failed, if not offer a writeup when I paid the inspection fee.

 

They probably don't know what's bad. That's why they didn't offer an explanation

 

I can see it from both side.

From a techs prospective, If there is excessive play, it excessive.
Kind of like seeing a coolant leak. It’s a leak. It’s obvious. There a problem.
It could be caused by more than one thing. And figuring it out takes time. Time which the tech wants paid for.
So I can understand why they didn’t investigate further.


From the vehicle owners prospective.
I’d like to know what is causing me to fail the inspection. Not necessarily why I failed.


Basically, it comes down to how a shop runs their business. Personally, if I owned a shop, I’d tell them what I felt the cause of the problem. I’d likely get more business this way by getting the job.

I mean, there isn’t much money being made by tell someone “You failed inspection, sorry” and sending them on their way.

 

Don't forget to check the wheel bearings. In my experience, anything over 100,000 miles in a Tacoma and you're on borrowed time. If it is a wheel bearing, replace them both. Like everyone else has said though. Jack it up and start wiggling before throwing parts at it.

 

Inspection? Glad we don’t have to go through that anymore. Had an 86 Chevy way back when and it passed emission’s then failed it cause the catalytic converters were missing. Idiots.